Birthday

Well, my birthday was alright. With my student discount, it only cost $10 to take the bus to Guelph. Unfortunately, it cost $30 to take a cab to the Greyhound bus station!

I made the most of my opportunity in Guelph and bought a hole punch, milk pitcher, and an umbrella.  Right now, I'm living in the most cost-effective way I can find, while trying to balance my diet.  I recently looked at the Canada food guide and found that the food category that I hadn't covered was dairy.  I wonder what the consequences of not eating dairy is?

I'm incorporating milk into my diet, now, because even if it's not necessary for survival, it's still fairly cost effective and it will balance my diet.

I brought back some clothes for interviewing in.  Remember how I said that, when I went into CWY, I couldn't wear the dress pants I'd gotten post-Katimavik, but that, after CWY, I could fit into them again?  Yeah, well, I can still fit comfortably into them.  That means that, I kept off some of the weight that I lost while I was in Africa.

I couldn't find a three hole punch, so I'm just using a one hole...

The umbrella was a good move.  I've been trapped in the school, or hampered to do something because of the rain time and time again, and when I've decided to brave the rain without protection, I've just looked like the saddest thing.

There's a guy in class that was wearing the Malian colours, red, yellow, green.  He was wearing them on some necklaces and a tag.  I was excited, but didn't speak up, cautioning myself that there are a number of flags that have those colours.  So I went home, researched national flags with those colour components and found that the most similar flag to Mali's was Guinea's, which was the same except had the colours in reverse. My classmate's were in the Malian order.  There was also the Senegal flag, which was the same as the Malian's, except with a black star in the yellow band, and the Congo flag, which had the same order but with diagonal stripes instead of vertical.  I figured that the beads of his necklace couldn't convey diagonal stripes or a black star easily, but then, he had that tag, with three vertical striped of plain green, yellow, red, in that order and from left to right.

I told myself that there wouldn't be a Malian in Ontario, because the Malians believe that Canada was a French-speaking nation due to their frequent interaction with Quebec due to their common language. But then, there was that Malian doctor I'd met at the hospital, who'd studied at the University of Toronto...

I thought that his hair, the shape of his eye, his skin tone, and his body structure were all very un-Mali, but... he was wearing the flag!  So I went up and asked him if he had any association with Mali.

I'm glad I didn't try to initiate conversation in Bambara, as I'd considered.  Turns out, he's from Jamaica.  The green and yellow symbolize Jamaica, and the red is Rasta.  Then another woman heard the conversation and came to introduce herself, as she was also Jamaican. Fsst... I can't believe I never noticed that those Rasta hats are Mali colours...

Remember how I said that my calling card changed it's policy and no longer covered Mali? And that there are no calling cards that cover anywhere in Africa?  Well, I was walking along and saw a giant poster at a local bargain store, which was titled AFRICA.  On closer inspection, it turned out to be for Africa-brand calling cards that specialize in calling the African nations. Next to that poster was one for African Beat brand calling cards.  Curiously, though, African Beat covered all the major nations across the globe and left out Mali. Basically, it covered only what the standard calling card does.  The Africa brand cards, though, cover all the African nations, including Mali.